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Captivating Cape Verde

Captivating Cape Verde

As our ATR 42-300 turboprop aircraft banked, lowered its undercarriage and began its final descent to the tiny island of Fogo, the middle-aged woman sitting next to me leaned forward and gazed rather apprehensively out of the window. As she did so, she made the sign of the cross on her chest.

For the last few minutes of the short flight, she clenched her fists tightly in her lap and seemed to be holding her breath. If I had been a nervous person, she certainly would have given me the jitters.

I attributed her behaviour to a fear of flying – until, that is, we touched down.

As soon as the ATR had landed safely, albeit rather bumpily, and slowed to taxiing speed, virtually everyone aboard spontaneously clapped and cheered. Did they know something I didn’t?

Minutes later, when I emerged from the aircraft into the bright sunlight, I realised why the woman had been anxious and why everyone had greeted the touchdown with rapturous applause.

The runway seemed to be rather short (I am sure, though, it was perfectly adequate for the type of aircraft using it) and a little rough in places, and the apron in front of what passed for a terminal building was scattered with pebbles and small rocks.

After retrieving my baggage – no conveyer belt here, just a hole in the wall – I looked for and eventually found my guide. Much to my surprise, the small airport was packed and the perimeter road lined with hundreds of excited people.

“Everyone is returning to Fogo for the annual Bandeira de Sao Filipe Festival,” I was told. “It’s a time for families and friends to get together.” It was also an occasion for much merriment and late night revelry, with music, dancing, at least one religious parade, fireworks and horse racing.



Fogo is one of 10 volcanic islands (the others being Santo Antao, Sao Vicente, Santa Luzia, Sao Nicolau, Sal, Boa Vista, Maio, Santiago and Nova Sintra) and various islets making up the Cape Verde archipelago, some 450 km west of Senegal in the Atlantic Ocean.

As a first-time visitor guest of the Cape Verde Experience (Cape Verde specialists and part of Serenity Holidays), I decided to ‘island hop’ – sampling the varied delights of four islands in seven days.

The scenery on Fogo is dramatic. From the coastal town of Sao Felipe, the highly fertile and cultivated flanks of the volcano soar majestically skyward. What appears to be the summit, however, is merely the top of the crater wall. Beyond the rim, inside the ancient caldera, is a vast plain of contorted lava flows, scalpel-sharp cinders, mounds of black sand and assorted volcanic debris.

Dominating the caldera is 2,829 metre high Pico de Fogo, which erupted in 1785 and in so doing became Cape Verde’s highest mountain. There were two eruptions during the 20th century – the first in 1951, and the second in 1995 when the village of Boca Fonte was entombed and lava ‘bombs’ up to four metres wide were blasted skyward.

It’s possible to climb Pico de Fogo, but the trek is not for the faint-hearted, the ascent and descent taking around seven hours. I contented myself with exploratory forays among the frozen flows of lava on the crater floor.

The caldera villages of Portela and Bangaeira grow coffee, stone, bon jinho and congo beans and vines. In a good year, the winery cooperative in Portela produces up to 50,000 bottles of five different wines – and very good they are, too!

Cape Verde is a smorgasbord of races and cultures, the colour of people’s skins ranging from ebony to ivory. Unique to Fogo’s caldera communities is a race of fair-haired, light-skinned people – descendants of Francois Montrond, a French duke who arrived on the island in 1872. Apparently this wealthy nobleman had at least three wives, sired at least 11 children and adopted two others.

The only settlement of any size on Sao Vicente is Mindelo – the island’s capital. Mindelo’s greatest asset is its large natural harbour, the commercial potential of which was first exploited by the British in the 19th century when John Lewis established a coal refuelling station for ships travelling between Europe, South America and Africa. At one time, thousands of ships dropped anchor in the bay each year to replenish their supplies.

Today, the port/harbour caters for craft of many kinds – ferries, cruise liners and container ships to yachts and naval vessels – and a marina is being built.

The curve of the beautiful bay is best appreciated from a vantage point above the city, such as the hilltop on which stands derelict Fortim d’El Rei. Built in 1852, this fort was used in the 1960s as a jail for political prisoners.

There are many fine colonial buildings in Mindelo, including the eye-catching Presidential Palace and the Centro Culturel do Mindelo arts centre. The highlight of my walkabout, however, was the sights, sounds and most definitely the smells of the large Mercado de Peixe fish market where fish of myriad shapes, sizes and colours were being gutted, washed, displayed and sold amid much arm-waving, shouting and dashing about. Nearby, on the waterfront, a group of men were busy gutting, salting and drying fish while others were relaxing in the shade over a card game.

After lunch, my guide took me to the summit of 750 m Monte Verde – the island’s highest point – to admire the view. Unfortunately, scudding clouds prevented me from seeing much more than the mountain itself. As we drove back down the long and winding cobbled road, I saw many abandoned farmhouses – testimony to just how difficult it is to grow crops in an area with fecund soil but very little water.

Sao Vicente is renowned for its musical and cultural heritage and home to Cesaria Evora, the famous Cape Verdean singer known as the ‘barefoot diva’.

Santiago – the biggest island - is pleasantly varied, geographically, with everything from verdant valleys and jagged, teeth-like mountain peaks to arid plains and glorious beaches. For me, the most interesting place was not Praia, the modern capital of both Santiago and Cape Verde, but the historic capital of Cidade Velha (formerly Ribeira Grande), founded in 1462 by Antonio de Noli and Diogo Gomes. Cidade Velha is where the archipelago was initially settled and the first Cape Verdeans were born.

Before heading into town, I stopped to see Fortaleza Real de Sao Felipe – the hilltop fortress built in 1587 following an attack on Cidade Velha two years earlier by Sir Francis Drake who came ashore with 1,000 men searching for gold. He didn’t find gold or the town’s inhabitants who had fled to the mountains. Drake left with nothing more than food and water. Later, many of his crew fell sick and died.

Until relatively recently, the fortress was a ruin. Now it has been fully restored and is a sight to behold. A visitor leaflet says the Fortazela is a “symbol of historical national identity” and the only “dignitary military building of its type in Cape Verde.”

There are many buildings and structures of interest in Cidade Velha. Among them are the 1495 Igreja Nossa Senhora do Rosario Catholic church, Rua Banana (the oldest street in Cape Verde), the ruins of the Cathedral of Cape Verde (construction began in 1556 but was not finished until around 1700) and a 1512 white marble justice statue where executions once took place.

Countless Spanish and Portuguese knights once lived in Cidade Velha and the tombs of several of them can be seen in the floor of the do Rosario church.

Cidade Velha declined after it was sacked a second time - by Jacques Cassart in 1712. The population began moving to Praia which became the new capital by 1770.

If you enjoy board, wind or kite surfing, big game fishing, diving or simply reading the latest blockbuster novel while soaking up the sun, then Sal is for you. Beyond the hotel resorts of this largely flat, featureless island, there is very little to do that’s not beach or water-based – unless, of course, you counting propping up the bar as an activity!

Sal has been endowed with some wonderful beaches and that’s where many, if not most, holidaymakers seem to spend a good deal of their time.

One couple I met during my trip had done very little for two weeks apart from getting a tan. Water-loving visitors can hire surfing, fishing and diving equipment at various centres.

The most interesting place to visit is the Pedra le Lume saltpans where salt is dug from a network of pans and sold commercially, though not in the quantity of the past century or two. The shallow pans, which cover the floor of a volcanic caldera, are a kaleidoscope of colour – reds, green, blues and a multitude of hues in between.

Pedra le Lume is becoming increasingly popular as a tourist attraction, not least because visitors are allowed to bathe in the super-dense, Dead Sea-like water in which it is impossible to shrink. There is a small visitor centre where bathers can shower off the excess salt after a dip and buy a snack, drink and/or a souvenir.

Exploited and settled by all manner of people down the centuries, independent Cape Verde is now entering a new era as a holiday and investment hotspot and facing the future with confidence.

I was thoroughly captivated by the archipelago and hope to return some day to explore the other sun-blessed islands.

© TheTravelEditor.com

Reproduced with the kind permission of TheTravelEditor.com

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